The present invention is directed toward food cooking ovens. More particularly, the present invention is directed to rotisserie ovens having horizontally and vertically oriented cooking elements.
Indoor household use rotisserie ovens are in wide use in the United States. Because most use hot electrical elements to radiantly cook foods such as meats, fish, foul, and vegetables; they commonly share cleaning problems associated with splattering, vaporizing, and recondensing of greases and oils. Cleaning typically is made yet more difficult by the presence of hard-to-reach areas such as nooks and crannies around heating elements. Further, grease may condense between inner and outer oven walls and in other inaccessible areas, potentially creating unpleasant odors and breeding grounds for bacteria.
Part of the problem is that most of these devices have twin, inner and outer, oven wall construction. Such construction does not allow these devices to be immersed in water for cleaning because water would collect in the spaces between the inner and outer walls. Immersion in water for cleaning is also prevented by the presence of integrally connected electrical components.
Many outdoor rotisseries have single thickness walls encasing their oven cavities. A particularly innovative embodiment of this outdoor construction uses a single thickness oven wall construction and removable electrical components. Such device relies on an outer frame to support the oven cavity and its electrical components. Consequently this device is more expensive to construct than a device which does not rely on an outer frame. In addition, the scale of this device appears to make it difficult to wash the oven cavity in a kitchen sink.
Other problems indoor household use rotisseries have include lack of versatility. As an example, horizontal spit countertop rotisseries, are good for cooking chickens, but are inappropriate for cooking pizzas. By contrast, horizontal turntable rotisseries, may cook pizzas, but are inappropriate for chickens. And none of these devices can cook breads.
It would be desirable to have a single device which could cook a variety of foods and overcomes the aforementioned problems.